Does the LEO that signs off on class 3 items ask you questions, such as "Why do you need this?"

I am just curios if I would just turn in the papers, ect... or if I would turn in the paperwork and have a chat about why I want what I want.

Depends on the cleo. Some go both ways mine tells you to go kick rocks

My advice is to get a trust instead of going the individual route.

There's nothing cheap about NFA stuff anyway, between the stamps, and the half dozen NFA items you're going to get in the end.

It is a physical impossibility to stop at one NFA item.  You're going to end up with 3-5 cans, a couple of short barrel rifles, and if you have the money, something full auto.

So, is it worth the 200-400 bucks for a trust, where you never have to get fingerprinted and fool with that, put pictures in, and worst of all, have to ask permission to own a firearm, when even the intent of the NFA law was not to allow veto power by the local cop, just to ask them if they knew something that has not shown up on an arrest sheet - lots of midnight calls for domestic fights and such.

Plus, you can have others, your wife, family, kids, buddies, etc, all on the trust, then they can use them too.

I'd go the trust route.

This! Hell my CLEO will sign, but when I get ready to buy I want my paperwork sent off ASAP.

nope mine just pulls a pen out of his pocket and signs, takes all of 3 minutes from walking in the door to walking out the door of the PD

I would at least test the waters and take the paperwork to him and see what happens. You can always get a trust if you need to. I have 8 MG's, 7 suppresors, and 3 SBR's and I got a signature for all of them. Some LEO's don't give you any trouble and sign it. I would think in TX you would be fire.

i wonder how many crimes were foiled by the CLEO not signing off

picture a local police chief saying, "whew! thank goodness I stopped this bad guy from submitting his prints to the fbi and getting permission to buy an MG.  Now he can only use illegal machine guns, shotguns, pistols, rifles, axes, baseball bats, poison and knives.   So we really put a big crimp in his diabolical plans."

do tell

If I'm in the right mood and have everything ready I can have my sheriff sign, fingerprints done, and passport photos taken within a few hours and have it sent in the mail. But I never really do that because a few days of time to get the stuff done is hardly anything compared to the 6-9 month wait for it to come back.

My first one, which was for a selectfire HK, had the sheriff wanting to know if he could "play" with it when it came through.
second one, an SBR, was signed off on by a different sheriff. I didn't even see him........dropped the paperwork off at his office and picked it up the next day.